Is it criminal trespass to go into your neighbor's yard and cut off branches

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. In most jurisdictions you can cut off branches from a neighbor's tree

that overhang your property, but only up to the lot line, and only if it doesn't actually harm the tree. And you are responsible for paying for this. You can't trespass on your neighbor's property to do this or cut branches that are on the neighbor's side of the property line.

Last spring, probably late May, my asshole neighbor came over and demanded that I cut down (at my expense) a couple of trees whose branches hung over his yard because he claimed they were impinging on some power lines and (he claimed) this was going to set his house on fire, so this would have to be done immediately. I politely declined to do this and explained that he was legally allowed to trim the branches up to the property line as long as the tree wasn't damaged, but I was not obligated to pay for it. Basically, I explained, he "owns" everything above his property and he was responsible for it. Well, he and his wife got really furious and told me I was obligated to do this and it would be my fault if their house caught on fire because of the power lined. I said, sorry, and gave them the phone number of a good arborist.

And nothing happened until October (despite the "crisis" involving the power lines). I came home and found that my neighbor had hacked off a whole bunch of branches far over the property line, cut a couple of my shrubs clear to the ground, and then thrown all the cut branches, a couple hundred pounds of them, into my yard and onto my garden. When I went next door to complain (again, as politely as I could manage), the wife threw a really crazy hissy fit and accused me of violating my "moral" obligation to cut the branches and pay for it.

I have not spoken to these people since. I put up a fence.